At the present time flexible bags are known in the field for the filling of, for example, drinks, powder products etc. and are in use, as described in WO 2011/072194 A2. The products are filled into the bags by, for example, a nozzle array for this reason.
In the case of products with any desired shape or irregular size this filling method cannot be used because the bag opening space available for introducing the products into the bag is limited. Furthermore some of these products do not flow freely into the opening or do not fall fully into the bag. It is for this reason that bag filling machines often require products of any desired shape to be pre-treated and compressed before they are directed into the bag. This pretreating or compressing often makes use of complex devices which define secondary product preparation systems. At these secondary preparation systems the products concerned are weighed or counted, conveyed to the bagging machine and have to be compressed into a size range which fits in the bag opening. The products also have to be driven to ensure that they are all conveyed fully into the bag.
These secondary product preparation systems are frequently separate from the primary bag filling machine, costing time and space. This means that the products requiring pretreatment are compressed or compacted to the required size range that fits into the bag opening in a separate stage before the bags are filled with the product. In this respect the market uses a number of methods to handle complicated products like these.
The most prevalent method is manual loading of the bags. This requires a great amount of manual effort, and the potential for error when loading the product is high. The slow throughput rate and the high risk of contamination with food products are further disadvantages. Other methods are very complex and expensive and often involve many different stages or operations to make the product ready for filling.